Mimsy Were the Borogoves

Food: Recipes, cookbook reviews, food notes, and restaurant reviews with a heavy emphasis on San Diego. Unless otherwise noted, I have personally tried each recipe that gets its own page, but not necessarily recipes listed as part of a cookbook review.

Macaroni and cheese

Jerry Stratton, June 4, 1999

If you keep pasta and good meltable cheese on hand, there’s no reason to make powdered, packaged cheese pasta.

Good Food Servings: 10
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 pound macaroni
  • 3 tblsp butter
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
  • 1 green chili, chopped
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 pound aged cheddar
  • 1 tblsp chili paste
  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste
  • Toasted Caraway
  • Bread Crumbs
  • Nutmeg
  • Hungarian Paprika
  • Fresh Parmesan

Steps

  1. Boil the macaroni according to its directions. Drain.
  2. Sauté the onion in the butter until golden.
  3. Add the garlic and green chili, and sauté another minute.
  4. Add the cheese. Stir until melted.
  5. Add the chili paste and yogurt. Stir until mixed.
  6. Put the macaroni into the serving bowl or container, and pour the cheese mix on top. Add salt. Mix well.
  7. Sprinkle the caraway and bread crumbs over the top. Sprinkle the nutmeg and paprika over the top to taste. Grate parmesan cheese over the top and let it melt.

I use “Sambal-badjak” chili paste with onion. Tabasco sauce or hot pepper sauce would also be very good. You might choose to reduce to a teaspoon or two depending on the strength of the sauce and your own tastes.

A great way to get both the toasted caraway seed and the bread crumbs is by making bread the night before I make this: sour-dough corn-rye bread with caraway seeds on top. A significant amount of caraway and bread crumbs develop from this process after taking the bread from the oven.

  1. <- Metric Cooking
  2. Seasoned salt ->